In the construction industry, H-piling is often driven to support bridges and other large structures. Sheet piling (also sometimes referred to as Z-piling) is often driven for cofferdams or similar retaining structures. In many instances it is necessary to splice the H-piling or sheet piling due to, for example, soil conditions or overhead constraints.
At present, there are two methods known in the art to perform such splicing. The first method is to drive a bottom section of piling, and then place another higher section of piling upon the bottom section. The joint is then welded with a full-penetration weld. The second method is to drive the bottom section of piling. Then, a pile splicer is placed on top of the bottom section. Then, another higher section of piling is placed atop the bottom section into the pile splicer. Finally, the splicer is welded, as are the flanges of the pilings themselves.
In the prior art, there exist mechanical splicers for both H-piling and sheet piling. The leading splicing apparatus, which is still widely used and has not been improved in over 50 years, is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828 and illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 herein, which are copied directly from FIGS. 2 and 5 respectively of U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828. The two opposing faces (channels 27) of these splicers are fabricated integrally with a welded steel connecting lug (connector 30) which holds both faces of the splicer at a fixed distance from one another. Because of the permanently-connecting lug (30), this distance cannot be adjusted, and the two opposing splicer faces are not detachable and not separable.
In many instances, this permanent attachment and fixed distance makes it very difficult to slide the splicer onto the bottom piling section (20) due to extra material from mill tolerances or deformations at the top of the bottom section due to pounding from the pile hammer during driving. Often, to enable installation, the splicer must be beaten with a sledge hammer or the pile must be ground down with a hand-held grinder to remove the extra mill materials or the deformations from driving. This is time-consuming and costly in a pile driving operation.
Indeed, these sorts of problem are recognized and articulated in column 2, lines 11 through 37 of U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828, where it is stated: “In driving the lower H-beam section 20 into the earth, the upper end may be considerably battered and distorted. In that event the upper end of this pile section would have to be squared as by burning off said upper end . . . . The dimensions of H-beams differ to a considerable extent and it is therefore necessary to provide for variations in clearance between the sleeve 24 and the H-beams 20 and 23. In order to avoid undesirable looseness, steel wedges could be used between the webs of the H-beams 20 and 23 and the webs 28 of channels 27 and between flanges 26 of the H-beams and flanges 29 of the channels 27. In subsequent driving by blows on the upper end of the upper pile section 23, said wedges may be loosened and fall out. It would therefore be desirable to secure them in position as by spot welding. In order to produce a strong connection the flanges 26 of the two H-beams 20 and 23 may be connected by welds 32 as indicated in FIGS. 4 and 7.” (emphasis added.)
In the years since U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828 was issued, there have been numerous devices invented for use in various pile driving and splicing applications. Patents which disclose some of these devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,978,874; 3,058,553; 3,119,635; 3,126,709; 3,333,429; 3,628,300; 3,934,422; 4,053,247; 4,605,340; 4,610,571; and 6,561,736. However, despite over 50 years of motivation, none of these advances overcomes the fact that the distance between the two opposing faces (channels 27) of the U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828 splicer cannot be adjusted. Therefore, other time-consuming and costly workarounds are still required, in industry practice, right up to the present day. This appears to be a limitation in the existing prior art for both H-piling and sheet-piling.
It would be desirable to have a device, system and method which avoids the need to grind or burn excess material from the piles or from the splicer, which eliminates the need for tightening wedges which as noted can be loosened or fall out without various spot welds, and which obviates the need for other workarounds required to obtain a secure and reliable splice because of the lack of adjustability of the U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,828 splicer and any other like splicers.
It would further be desirable to have a pile splicer which is adjustable, and in particular, in which the distance between the two opposing faces of the splicer can be readily adjusted. In this way, the distance between the two opposing faces can be increased so that the piles can be fitted into the splicer without grinding, burning, wedging, tack welding, etc., and then, once the piles are placed, the distance can be decreased to a very tight fit—again without grinding, burning, wedging, tack welding, etc.—before final permanent attachment, e.g., welding takes place.